Every Brilliant Thing is an uplifting story about love, life, family, mental health and a list of all the wonderful things in the world!

Presented as a live participative performance, this moving and intimate piece invites you to celebrate the joy found in everyday objects. A unique experience that encourages everyone present to meet and interact with each other and the performer and in doing so, take the story forward. 

He is seven years old. Mum’s in hospital. She finds it hard to be happy. He makes a list to cheer her up.

1. Ice cream

2. Pillow fights

3. Staying up past your bedtime and being taken to a movie

4. The colour yellow

5. Gully Cricket

What would you put on your list?

Content Warning: The story contains triggering and/or sensitive material. Mental health issues like depression and coping with the suicide of a loved one are part of the narrative.

Duration: 75 minutes (no interval)

Suitable for Ages 14+

Credits:

Every Brilliant Thing

Written by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe

Directed by Q 

Performed by Vivek Madan

Sound Design: Varrunn Bangera

Music: Kaizad Gherda

Light Design: Arghya Lahiri

Production Team: Rachit Khetan, Srishti Ray

Creative Producer: Toral Shah

Executive Producer: Vivek Rao

A QTP Presentation

Biography of the playwright

Duncan Macmillan is an award-winning writer and theatre director whose plays include Lungs, Every Brilliant Thing and 2071 (all published by Oberon Books). His play People, Places and Things transferred from the National Theatre to the West End in 2016)

Many of Macmillan's major plays take as their central theme a contemporary socio-political issue: Lungs explores parenthood, People, Places and Things addiction and recovery, and Every Brilliant Thing considers the issues of depression and suicide.

Macmillan has described his reasons for writing the play as to communicate to people "You’re not alone, you’re not weird, you will get through it, and you’ve just got to hold on. That’s a very uncool, unfashionable thing for someone to say, but I really mean it. I didn’t see anyone discussing suicidal depression in a useful or interesting or accurate way.”

About the director 

Quasar is a theatre-holic and lover of all things theatrical. Since 1999, he has directed and produced over 25 plays with QTP; including A Peasant of El Salvador, Project S.T.R.I.P., So Many Socks, Minorities and many others about contemporary social concerns. Internationally he has worked on Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the aerial drama Mind Walking. 

He is a founding member of Thespo - a youth theatre movement. And at present, he is also serving on the festival committee of Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai International LitFest.

He also works as a lighting designer, stage manager, leads workshops and is a passionate crusader for the survival of theatre in the public consciousness.

About the performer

Vivek Madan is an actor and theatre producer based out of Bangalore. In his theatre journey of just over twenty years, he has performed in plays like Martin Sherman's Bent, Robert Bolt's Man for All Seasons, Eric Idle's Spamalot and John Nicholson and Steve Canny's Hound of the Baskerville's among others. Apart from directing plays, Vivek has been Festival Director of Writers' Bloc 4 (2016) and the annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival (2018).

He is a Founder-Partner at Bhasha Centre, an organisation formed with the intention of creating networks (digital and on ground) of arts professionals, aspirants and enthusiasts, across India. Its flagship project is thedramalibrary.com.

About QTP

QTP is a theatre & arts management company that specialises in unique and engaging experiences for live audiences. For the last 23 years, the company has been producing its own work as well as touring remarkable international plays from the US, UK, Ireland, China, and Canada. Their home productions include the critically acclaimed So Many Socks, the laugh riot The President is Coming, the long running Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace, the relevant A Peasant of El Salvador, the hilarious The God of Carnage and the fragile Wildtrack. 

They curate for and manage Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai International Literary Festival, which takes place each November since 2010; and the youth theatre movement Thespo, which is now in its 24th year.

Some of the international work they have brought to Indian audiences include Foreign Body (UK, 2018), Brotherhood (Canada, 2017), Chi Udaka (Australia, 2016), HeLa (UK, 2014), Mind Walking (UK, 2011) and To The Death of My Own Family (USA, 2007).

They were also instrumental in building international collaborations like The Mirror Crack'd (2019-2020), Monsoon Wedding (2018-19), Pink Sari Revolution (2017 & 2019), Nirbhaya (2013), Gates to India Song (2013) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2006-9). Most recently, also stage managed India’s first reality stage musical - Sing India Sing (2018-19).

Meeting the challenges posed by the lockdown in 2020-21, they have grown to create as well as manage live digital performances, events and festivals for online audiences.